Bianca > Recent Status Updates

In The First, Davies returns to her lifelong of swimming for the first time in years in the wake of a major breakup. Struggling with body image issues, she travels from her home to the Pond, where she meets a friend and together, they sink into the pond. Overall, I enjoyed the thoughts in parentheses sprinkled throughout though I do think this may be the most lacking essay since the first two in Winter.

Wortle is fighting for his life.

There’s not enough conflict coming from his side, I feel.

The ninth essay Landmarks was rather miserable in tone as the writer both craved to be desired by those around her but also felt uncomfortable. She searched for bodies of water anywhere she went to dive in, to experience even a bit of joy as she struggled to give into pleasure. There were many beautiful sentences in this essay, and the footnotes were well placed.

Yeah. I'm going to have to sleep on that before I write a single thought.

I’m enjoying this book well enough especially now that Edward’s secret is out but this scene is reminding me just how much Robert is still my favorite leading man in the series.

Echolocation was rather fascinating with a comparison of the writer to a bat as she navigated immigration, Brexit, the messiness of her cosmopolitan immigrant life. The lack of proximity to the Pond except when she had to scurry past it with no time and so many worries as if she was always passing by like a tourist rather than a resident.

The Lifeguard's Perspective had some of the most beautiful lines featured in the collection so far. Told from the perspective of a lifeguard, it also provided readers with a different look at the pond. I think Frizzell choosing this period of her experience at the lake was a great decision. I greatly enjoyed the descriptions from above as swimmers of all kind both loved and feared the water at times.

Well. That was probably the least romantic sex scene I’ve ever read.

I’m enjoying this well enough but it does make me think back on Part of Your World, which was a 5 star for me when I read it a few years back while stuck in bed with a terrible bout of COVID. I wonder if I reread it now if I would still feel the same.

Jacob’s POV is hitting a bit too close to home.

Out of Time was a good start for the summer section of the collection. It provides us with the writer's history with the pond as well as her relationship with swimming, which she describes as being rather 'fair-weather'. I enjoyed the literary comparisons and the reflection on an experience with a major storm on the way to the pond one day.

The idea of Venezuelan-born descendants of white American colonists crying about being treated like slaves by Spanish merchants while profiting off the enslavement of Africans. Capitalists truly are the same regardless of the century.

Also, Humboldt being an abolitionist is nice to know. I hope there’ll be more information on his thoughts on the impact of slavery on nature.

Really enjoying this so far.

The words of Lord Henry in chapter two on youth is the type of stuff fascists during WWII and their modern billionaire counterparts on Twitter be saying while injecting themselves with their children’s blood.

My yearly romance read.

This feels like the longest book I’ve ever read but it’s the finale and I need to know how he wraps it up.